The success of an organization is determined by four essential functions of management: controlling, leading, organizing, and planning. Controlling involves directing and monitoring the progress of employees. Controlling employees and the work environment helps employees to stay focused on goals set by the management. Management must provide superior leadership skills by making their presence known in the work environment. Employees have a basic need of having contact on a daily basis with management. By leading managers motivate their employees and increase efficiency. Management makes an organization successful by organizing all aspects of business which would include business functions; creating organizational charts, setting goals, creating an action plan, and figuring out the logistics to make sure goals are achieved.
Controlling
Management must use the function of control to stabilize employee performance and the work environment. Control is always viewed as a negative term because employees think of being restricted. However, controls are placed for the benefit of everyone, without a controlled organization there would be chaos. Within my organization, management maintains control by setting clear guidelines each employee must obey. “Managers expect people in an organization to change their behavior in response to control” (Erven, 1994). Since my colleagues and I work as independent contractors everyone has the power to choose their own schedule. Management controls the environment by making everyone adhere to the set schedule by 75% or better. When contractors meet their commitment, they are rewarded with a pay incentive. Prior to this policy being enforced, performance was lower, since this control has been in place performance has increased dramatically.
Leading
Management is expected exercise the function of leading in order for the organization to meet their goals. Leading is an essential function of management because it helps management direct employees to focus on the big picture. Typically management will focus on increasing productivity to improve cost efficiency. In order to improve productivity, employees need direction and motivation from management. At my organization, employees are paid based on commission. Management provides employees with information about busier working hours so that employees have the opportunity to maximize their efforts on those hours. At the end of the day, management wants the needs of the customers to be met as well as employees to be satisfied
with their compensation.
Organizing
Organizing is a critical component of good management, because everything within the organization is depending on the organizational skills of the management. Management is primarily responsible for organizing resources in order for goals to be met (Bateman & Snell, 2007). Within the organization, management must create an organizational chart which would describe the business function and responsibility of each person on that chart. Management would assume responsibility for all logistics to be in place to assist their employees of meeting their goals. In my organization, a critical component of organizing involves having all of the necessary technology functioning properly since business is conducted by phone and internet. On a daily basis the management has to make sure the phone routing system is functioning properly as well as their websites. Occasionally technical problems occur, and they must be handled immediately or else business will suffer if the necessary technology is not available.
Planning
Planning is essential component to the other three functions of management running smoothly. Planning involves the management team identifying goals and objectives within the organization. Once goals are mapped out, management must work together to analyze the current state of the organization and make a plan of action to implement immediate changes. In order to plan successfully, management must anticipate circumstances they could be affected by. Based on goals, objectives, and their forecast into the future they can begin to create business strategies. The management in my organization focuses on increasing the volume of customers. When the volume of customers drops, promotions occur more often to lure customers in. In order to prepare for unthinkable situations such as a drop in business management must work within other departments to develop contingency plans when business is not going as planned.
Conclusion
Controlling, leading, organizing, and planning are steps that work hand-in-hand to create and change business practices. The success of a business is depending on effective and efficient management that is willing to implement each of the four steps of management. Management must be willing to exercise control to make sure that everyone maintains focus on the goals. Controlling means monitoring internal and external factors that may threaten the progress of the organization. Leading is central to the function of management because it involves directing employees to the path of success. Organizing is a function that can be viewed as the function that keeps the rest of the functions together, because without the proper organization of details everything else would fall apart. Planning is a good starting point for new and established businesses. Planning allows management to set goals, analyze, anticipate positive or negative scenarios, and make business strategies; every other function is based on the preparation during this critical phase. When management balances these four functions, positive changes occur in an organization.
References
Bateman, T. and Snell, S. (2007). Management: The New Competitive Landscape. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Erven, B. (1999). The Controlling Function. Retrieved February 15, 2008, from Ohio State University Extension: http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~mgtexcel/Control.html
McNamara, C. (2008). Management Function of Coordinating / Controlling: Overview of Basic Methods. Retrieved February 15, 2008, from Free Management Library: http://www.managementhelp.org/cntrllng/cntrllng.htm#anchor1668441
